Planet on Fire
by Renart
Summary: In his long, long life Mr. Rory Williams had met a lot of interesting people. But never anyone who could offhand outdo the Doctor. Until now.


Title: Planet on Fire 1/5

Characters: Rory/Amy, Master/Doctor

Warning: AU (written for _Alternate Universe Challenge on she_is_to_me)_

Summary_: in his long, long life Mr. Rory Williams had met a lot of interesting people. But never anyone who could offhand outdo the Doctor. Until now._

Word count: ~1100

Beta: aralias

**somewhere, right now**

Rory draws a cell phone from his coat pocket. There is only one number in its memory and Rory just stares at it, too afraid to dial it.

"Go on."

"I… what if…" _no one picks it up?_

"Take a leap of faith, Pinocchio."

"Right." Rory nods and presses a button. There are short beeps and sort of rustle. "Just because you're too afraid to do it yourself."

"I don't want to give him a hearts attack."

Rory gives him a glare. "Sure."

Someone answers the phone. Rory holds the breath he doesn't really need.

"Hello!" and that's the Doctor's voice.

Rory suddenly feels few thousand years younger. "Doctor?"

"Rory?"

"Yep. That's me. Trace the signal, will ya?"

"Rory!" that's Amy. "Rory?"

"Hello."

"Oh my God! I though I lost you. Again. That was the most miserable two weeks in my whole life! Of course I should have known better by now. I'm not getting rid of you that easy, am I?"

"Nope."

That's good, that's fantastic and that's the best day in the history of the universe.

Amy laughs. And so does the Doctor.

"We are coming," cuts in the Doctor. "No worries, Mr. Pond. After all you are getting married in the morning."

"Right. Oh, wait, Doctor?"

"Yes?"

"You boyfriend is here."

"What boyfriend?" Silence. "The good looking one?"

Rory blinks. Not that said "boyfriend" is a bad looking one. It's just… No, no, no. More like: a) mad, b) crazy, c) genius, d) sometimes breezy, e) sometimes idiotic, f) sometimes mind-blowing, g) and cruel, h) and alien, i) but a little romantic at hearts, j) still can be annoying, k) actually sometimes he is a complete dick, l) sly, m) cunning, n) resourceful, o) a piece of shit, p) and a hungry one, q) yet so alive, r) like a live wire, s) inspiring, t) horrible, u) impossible, v) bewitching, w) delusional, x) brave, y) but scared, z) a Time Lord.

"Nope," says Rory and goes with: "The insane megalomaniac one."

The Master smiles proudly as if it's any some kind of achievement.

There is a tweak and …

Rory doesn't wait for Doctor to say anything coherent. He hangs up and waits for the impossible sound of the little blue box that's much bigger on the inside.

Well.

They wait.

**2 weeks before that…**

It happened like this. He was dying. Well, not dying _dying_, because that's another story altogether. But there was the Pandorica and Amy and River Song. And the Doctor. And they were all waiting for Big Bang Two. Whether waiting for the universe to end/start was a near death experience or not... Probably the answer was "yes". Rory was not too sure, because the only expert in such things was not available for questions and too busy with another case of not _really_ dying, but still maybe "really" enough to count. Rory remembered how he was desperately hoping for "happily ever after" for all four of them, and then there was falling. Well, his memories were somewhat fuzzy. There might or might not have been the end of the world somewhere in between.

_Geronimo._ That was the last thing he could dig out of his memory before he woke up here.

Rory glanced around.

Here was not where he wanted here to be.

Not the National Museum in 1996 with two beautiful women, which would be OK.

Not Leadworth in 2010 with Amy, which would be good.

Not the TARDIS with the Doctor and Amy, which would be impossible all things considered, but fantastic.

None of it.

_Geronimo_ indeed.

"Here we go again…"

For a start it was a planet, a very pretty planet if you didn't count burning spaceships and a – oh, what a surprise – burning something that was once tall and beautiful and magnificent. It was now smoking quietly from under broken dome, but Rory had perspective. It was hard not to after moving past one's one thousandth birthday. Not that he was walking around telling people… aliens this. He knew from experience that that tended to make people upset. Nine hundred and eight sounded good, only it was the Doctor's line.

He had wondered sometimes, looking at familiar lines of Pandorica, how Amy would fit in with two bitter men much older than she, after… when everything would be good again. Rory figured around the Crusades that she would probably feel very very young and very very loved.

Moot point now, with the Doctor probably dead and Rory most certainly lost, again - on some strange planet, which was relatively new. Lost on alien planet who knows where or when…

A planet, as in not the good old Earth.

Damn.

Rory inhaled the air: smoke and metal and decay. The smell of a war. Not a good old Earth war, but the kind where you got spaceships to blow up and freaking big lasers to cut through energy fields and planets to burn.

Well, at least now Earth didn't seem to be the one and only planet in existence. Which was a change. And probably meant that the Doctor had succeeded and committed the most glorious suicide in the history of the universe.

Which meant that Amy was safe.

Probably.

Well, his life had sucked for the last nineteen centuries. Why should today should be any different?

But first thing first…

"Where am I?" he asked frowning.

Of course there was no answer, only hot wind and a chain of explosions to his right. With trepidation Rory looked at the fires rising above the horizon. From the end of the Universe to the war zone. Why was it never a sunny beach with drinks and half-dressed people? Once, just once! Was it too much to ask?

He needed a plan to stay sane: a) Get out of here b) Find Amy c) Save the Doctor.

Well, as plans went it wasn't the worst one. Impracticable, check. Optimistic, check.

Of course he had no idea how do any of it, but he knew a good place to start. Rory looked contemplatively at the once beautiful thing he'd spotted early. A city? A research centre? A skyscraper? It was hard to tell. But it was just few miles away and it was no good just standing there and waiting for the magical Doctor to find him, considering that man was dead or dying in an infinite time trap. The city it was. There could be someone alive who might give him some directions.

"Right. And quick. Before the place goes up."

So Rory gave a deep sigh and started walking.

Tbc…


End file.
